“They encounter an MIT police officer and rather than see, ‘Is he going to follow us? Is he going to chase us?’ it appears that they came up and engaged him, killed him in his police vehicle, took off,” CBS News senior correspondent John Miller said.

MIT Police Chief John DiFava described Collier as a “dedicated officer who was extremely well liked by his colleagues.”

Collier’s family released a statement Friday, saying “We are heartbroken by the loss of our wonderful and caring son and brother, Sean Collier…our only solace is that Sean died bravely doing what he committed his life to — serving and protecting others.”